DAMMAM — Eastern Province Toastmasters International District 79's Division O conference 2014 was held at Novotel Hotel Dammam with exemplary response from members. Normally contests are conducted in English but this was the first time in the history of Toastmasters, all four contests were organized at Division level in Arabic too. The program began with the recitation of verses from the Qur,an by Bilal Azhar. Chief Sergeant at Arms, Chatura Dissanayaka opened the meeting and Anwar H. Khan conducted the banner parade in which 20 clubs and four areas of the division participated. Division O Governor Kaleem Ahmad welcomed the guests and members and presented a brief report about the division and informed the audience that the Division O had achieved the highest TMI award "President's Distinguished Division" and stands as No. 1 Division in District 79. An e-magazine, edited by Madhusah Nanayakkara and Motasem Mohammed Al-Dakhayel, was launched. Abdulrahman M. Al-Obayed, senior vice president (HR) from Saudi Electricity Company, was the chief guest. Ahmad thanked him for traveling from Riyadh and giving his precious time to attend this event. Conference Chairman Abubaker Nazeer and contest chair Ali Al-Eid conducted the program in English and Arabic respectively. The professionalism of the presentations were of such high standard that every person contesting should have been a winner, but in the true sense of tradition there was only one winner per category. Toastmaster club past Division F governor and present adviser in Eastern Province club Syed Faizulla and Salah Al-Hejji were chief judges for English and Arabic contests respectively, and briefed the audience about the general contest rules of Toastmasters International. Othman Al-Ghamdi, conducted the Arabic session of evaluation speech, and Sarath Kumara Jayasinghe conducted the English session of evaluation speech contest. Ahmed A. Al-Kuwaihes conducted the Arabic session of international speech, and Yasir Irfan conducted the English session of international speech contest. Muqdad Jaber Bin Hussain conducted the Arabic session of international speech,and Yasir Irfan conducted the English session of international speech contest. Wadha Mhale Al-Otaibe conducted the Arabic session of humorous speech Arabic, and Abdul Naser Bawazir conducted the English session of humorous speech contest. Ziyana Azhar, chairman YLP and Mumtaz Fatima conducted the YLP showcase in which young children presented their public speaking skill. The contestants were judged by a panel of judges and Syed Faizulla, chief judge English, announced the English segment winners. Madhusah Nanayakkara won the international speech contest, Mohammad Azhar won the humorous speech contest, Yogendraprasath won the evaluation speech contest and Ajeez Sebastian won the table topic speech contest. Salah Al-Hejji, chief judge announced the Arabic segment winners. Abdulaziz Al-Shalali won international speech contest, Ahmad Quraish won the humorous speech contest, Wael Al-Bassam won the evaluation speech contest and Khalid Al-Ghamdi won the table topic speech contest. Saif Ali Shiekh, District 79 governor, congratulated the winners and presented the trophies, while honoring the assignees and executive committee members. Ahmad concluded the meeting by thanking the audience, sponsors, committee chairman, executive committee members, assignees and everyone who made every effort to make this event successful. — SG
